Top Disney TV Official to Step Down

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Ms. Sweeney arriving at The 86th Academy Awards. She played a direct role in a ratings surge at ABC News and recently helped Disney complete a widely applauded programming deal with Dish Network.CreditLucas Jackson/Reuters

LOS ANGELES — In a move that stunned Hollywood, the television industry’s most powerful woman, Anne M. Sweeney, said on Tuesday that she would step down as president of the Disney-ABC Television Group to become a TV director.

Executives of the Walt Disney Company and Ms. Sweeney, 56, emphasized in interviews that she made a voluntary decision to leave an empire that includes ABC, hundreds of cable channels around the world, a chain of eight local TV stations, Radio Disney and a portion of Hulu and A & E Networks. She turned down a new three-year contract, instead signing a one-year extension that lasts until late January.

But Hollywood instantly read her decision as an acknowledgment that her 18-year rise at the world’s largest entertainment company had ended. In recent years, Disney has positioned other senior executives as likelier candidates to succeed Robert A. Iger as chief executive when he steps down in July 2016.

Although Mr. Iger has not commented publicly on his succession, it is well known within Disney that two other executives are the leading contenders: James A. Rasulo, chief financial officer, and Thomas O. Staggs, chairman of Disney’s theme park unit. (Disney has repeatedly and aggressively rejected rumors that Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer and a Disney board member, is also in the mix.)

Ms. Sweeney, who also holds the title of co-chairwoman of Disney Media Networks, a division that includes ESPN, said in an interview that she had made it clear to Disney that she did not want Mr. Iger’s post. “I appreciate the fact that so many people have wanted it for me,” she said. “But I didn’t want Bob’s job.”

“When you sit behind these big desks, you don’t truly get to touch the creative process, and that is an opportunity I wanted to give myself,” she continued. “Once Bob lifted his jaw off his desk, we had a very robust, fun, happy conversation about it.”

While Ms. Sweeney spoke in an interview of routinely visiting sets and poring over scripts, she was not widely seen as a hands-on creative executive at any of the channels she oversaw, which is one reason her announced intention to become a director flabbergasted the industry. She is also leaving one of the biggest jobs in entertainment: The Hollywood Reporter trade magazine has ranked her as the industry’s most powerful female executive for five years.

One of the oldest jokes in the entertainment business is the actor declaring that what he or she really wants to do is direct, but Ms. Sweeney had apparently never made this desire known to colleagues, nor had she taken steps to prepare. “I’m going to shadow some directors,” she said. “A lot of people have already reached out.”

While it is possible that Ms. Sweeney could find employment directing TV programs for Disney, either in the children’s arena or for ABC, she said it was too soon to say exactly how she might make her new career debut.

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Ms. Sweeney turned down a new contract.

In a separate interview, Mr. Iger declined to say who might take over for Ms. Sweeney, although he said it would be an internal hire. He said an announcement would come sooner than later. “Anne runs a sprawling, important, global division, parts of which are seeing fast-paced change and a fair amount of challenges,” he said. “We fortunately have a deep bench of talented, smart, experienced people.”

Regarding Ms. Sweeney’s decision to leave Disney to pursue directing, Mr. Iger said: “There is nothing below the surface here. I offered her a new multiyear contract, and she came back and said she wanted to do this instead.” He added: “I was somewhat incredulous. I didn’t see that coming.”

Ms. Sweeney, who spent 12 years at Nickelodeon and three years at FX before joining Disney, is known as a highly polished executive with substantial skills in the art of corporate politics. Analysts estimate that her divisions generated $11.9 billion in revenue and $2.6 billion in profit last year.

Her résumé, which is larded with awards, includes helping Disney become the first major TV supplier to join iTunes and building Disney Channel into a juggernaut. She is also credited with turning around ABC’s news division by hiring Ben Sherwood to take it over in 2010. Among other feats, Mr. Sherwood ended the morning dominance that NBC’s “Today” show had for 16 years. ABC’s “Good Morning America” is now the top morning show, raking in the profits that go with that status.

Mr. Sherwood is prominent on the list of possible successors to Ms. Sweeney, along with Nancy Dubuc, the president of the hugely successful A & E Networks. Gary Marsh, president of Disney Channels Worldwide, and Benjamin N. Pyne, president of global distribution for Disney Media Networks, have also been mentioned as contenders.

ABC’s program lineup has not achieved nearly as much success under Ms. Sweeney’s watch as the cable channels, though the network had a period of success starting a decade ago when it introduced three hit shows in one season, “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Lost.”

That success became somewhat fraught for Ms. Sweeney because of a long-term conflict with the network’s top program executive at the time, Stephen McPherson. ABC executives reported at the time that Mr. McPherson eventually refused to report to Ms. Sweeney or even often to speak to her. After the network endured several fallow seasons, Ms. Sweeney managed to prevail in the standoff and Mr. McPherson was fired in 2010.

Ms. Sweeney has a much better relationship with her choice to replace him, Paul Lee, though ABC has continued to struggle, partly because it is the only network without any significant sports programming, and thus heavily dependent on female viewers.

Perhaps demonstrating her political acumen — or directing skill, depending on your point of view — Ms. Sweeney chose to disclose her departure in a carefully orchestrated cover article in The Hollywood Reporter. Disney executives said Ms. Sweeney chose that outlet to send a specific message: I’m done being a business leader; I now want to be seen as a member of the creative trenches.

Still, one Disney executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Ms. Sweeney will continue to oversee his division for a time, said the overall internal reaction — which mirrored the reaction of others in the industry — was bemusement at Ms. Sweeney’s planned career change.

He said, “The best line I have heard is: ‘Disney makes fairy tales, don’t they?’ ”

Brooks Barnes reported from Los Angeles and Bill Carter from New York.

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